Landscape art at Kemnay Quarry

THE completion of an ambitious 10-year landscape art project, the ‘Place of Origin’, designed to celebrate the quarrying of granite and the influence of the Scottish stone industry, has been marked with an official opening by the Duke of Kent.

The project, which focuses on the historic Kemnay Quarry in Aberdeenshire, has culminated in the creation of a woodland area and observation hill.

Three artists, led by John Maine RA, worked closely together on the ‘Place of Origin’ project with the Scottish Sculpture Workshop and Kemnay Community Council, and chose to make the landscape into artwork rather than place individual pieces of sculpture near to the quarry.

Aggregate Industries, who own Kemnay Quarry, donated more than 100,000 tons of granular materials to build the vantage point overlooking the site. Quarry blocks form a robust outcrop mimicking Bennachie, the nearby hill range, and crushed granite has been used to construct footpaths through 20 acres of woodland.

The decision to base the artwork at Kemnay was an easy one for John Maine. He said, ‘At one time Aberdeenshire had the highest number of working quarries of any Scottish county, all producing high-quality granite to support the demand for building projects at home and abroad.

‘This is a huge contribution by Aggregate Industries in helping to establish one of the most important cultural aspects of north-east Scotland, which will be enjoyed by local, national and even international visitors for many years to come.’

Kemnay Quarry’s primary operation is the extraction and supply of high-quality light-grey granite and dimensional stone. The quarry was established by Aggregate Industries in 1988 when it acquired John Fyfe Ltd, although the site has been active for over 150 years.